“LIBERATE MICHIGAN“

Here are the numbers: Over 700,000 cases of Covid-19 in the United States. Over 40,000 have died.

I don’t blame Donald Trump for Covid-19. I do blame him for his lack of an early response and how he’s handling the pandemic. I’m pretty sure that playing Golf and calling it a hoax isn’t the way to stop a virus from entering our country.

“LIBERATE MINNESOTA“

Coming from me, this may be hard to believe, but I liked the plan that Trump put forward to start the re-opening of the U.S. I thought the cautious, three stage plan, which including massive testing was an excellent and safe way to get us moving again. I would have liked to have seen a month instead of fourteen days before we moved up each stage, but at least Don was listening to the experts. He was listening to the science.

That lasted one day. Not even one fucking day!

“LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd amendment. It is under siege!”

Thursday afternoon, Trump breaks out his plan. By Friday morning, he wants to liberate the country. Forget about taking it slow. Forget about the plan. It’s time to hit the streets!

What makes this worse is that his minions live by his words. It took only a few hours before the Florida Governor opened the beach in Jacksonville. By Saturday, it was jam packed. I guess getting some sun is worth risking your life. Hopefully they used sunscreen. 

Apparently other Governors have understood the words slow re-opening as meaning Monday. They’ve given the clearance for their state’s residents to go back to work and resume their daily activities. Yeah, it’s important, but it couldn’t wait another month…or at least two more weeks? People, it’s pretty hard to go to work when you’re dead!

Liberate 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue!

It’s been shown during this pandemic that Donald Trump doesn’t care about the American people. He only cares about a strong economy and that’s because it’ll put money in his and his family’s pockets. A strong economy improves his chances to be re-elected president. To Hell with expanded testing. To Hell with thousands of more deaths. Hey, at least people are at the beach!

We need to liberate the White House. November can’t come soon enough. Hopefully we’ll still be alive then.

Related Post: Are you still watching Donald Trump’s coronavirus press briefings?

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Hey, it’s Illinois where the entire governmental apparatus is designed to  form a more perfect political machine, establish special privileges, insure Democratic Party tranquility, provide for the indicted pols’ defense, promote the insiders’ welfare, and secure the blessings of government workers’ unions.

Unbelievable, you say? Who would have the brass to do that while so many people are suffering from the coronavirus economic shutdown? And while an Illinois Democratic leader has petitioned for a $40 billion bailout from the feds?

The Illinois Policy Institute has the skinny:

ILLINOIS SCHEDULED TO GIVE $261M IN AUTOMATIC PAY RAISES TO STATE WORKERS:Pritzker should join other Democratic governors in postponing automatic pay raises, which would free up funds for needy Illinoisans and potentially preserve state worker jobs in the long run.

That, despite this bad news:

Nearly 1.5 million Illinoisans – 24% of the state’s workforce – are vulnerable to layoffs and reduced hours. Over half a million residents filed unemployment claims in the past four weeks.

The mounting economic crisis is certain to be accompanied by a steep drop in state tax revenues – a University of Illinois study estimated anywhere between $4.3 billion and $14.1 billion – and Illinois lawmakers and the governor will need to allocate funds to deal with the most urgent budget priorities.

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www.dennisbyrne.net 

My historical novel: Madness: The War of 1812

What is your favorite quote or saying? I love inspirational quotes, and even have a few Pinterest Boards that I share them on. It is challenging to choose just one; however, this quote by Walt Disney resonated with me during normal life, but especially now at this time. He was quoted as saying, “I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.” I am aware of what is going on in the world. I read articles, I listen to the news, and I look at the number of cases and the deaths each night. I even know people who have personally lost a family member and a friend to covid-19 so I am realistic. I am staying busy writing and reading a lot. In addition, I walk daily even if I have to walk in circles inside the house. I live with my mother so although I worry about her getting sick, I am grateful that I am not alone. I realized though that I have not cried over what is happening in the world yet. Anyone who knows me probably thought that I cry myself to sleep nightly since I am such a sensitive and emotional person. I have asked myself if should I worry that I have not cried? I think that like Walt Disney’s quote I know that life is complex, and I also know that I can’t give to others from an empty well, which is what I want to do during this time. It is important to keep my well full and maybe it is filled with good things like love, positivity, gratitude and hope that there is just not enough room for tears. Maybe one day the tears will flow, but for today where there is fear, I want to be filled with hope. Where there is uncertainty, I want to be filled with trust. Where there is anxiety, I want to be filled with peace. Where there is lacking, I want to be filled with gratitude.Where there is darkness, I want to be filled with light so that I can be a light to others in this darkness to encourage and to offer hope.

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And read more positive thoughts Looking For The Good

All through my day, no matter where I go, or what I do, I am always looking for the good in people, in the world, in my life or even just in my day.

As we struggle in our second month, the syllable count is not quite as precise as in the first edition. Just as life will never again be as smooth.

SPRING

Though April is the cruelest month.
We mustn’t become a wasteland
Of hollow city streets.

VACCINES

Hope for tiny pinpricks
To keep the viral bits at bay
And pray that no other comes.

LEADERS 
I am not a student
Of our presidential history
But some would have done better.

STREAMING

Now the greatest challenge
For homebound’s brain to decipher
Watch Hulu, Netflix, or Prime?

MASKING

Our eyes peer out bravely
Over narrow strips of cloth and paper
Looking for friendly smiles.

DISTANCE

We walk a looping road
Measuring a mile each time we circuit
Six feet is so far apart.

ANTIBODIES

At  U of I Med we were taught
About the immunoglobulins M and G.
Now the whole world is learning.

EXPERTS

When EF Hutton talked
People listened to their good advice
But Dr. Fauci’s is better.

SANITIZERS

Hand washing can chafe
While alcoholic disinfectants
Leave an irritating tang.

FUTURE

We don’t forfeit our hope
We use it all up and then we remember
Hope is  a renewable energy

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On the first night I joined my cancer support group, back in 2012, a member of the group told me that cancer was a gift. I was crying at that moment, but stopped on a dime. I was speechless.

Not long after, I discovered the New York Times’ feature, ”Picture Your Life After Cancer,” a series of photos that people submitted of themselves with short descriptions of their lives after a cancer diagnosis. I ran across two photos, both of Laurie Comings, a young woman who had survived leukemia. In one she was dancing at a wedding. In another she was in scrubs working as a nurse on an oncology unit. In her description, she wrote, “When tallied up, no, it is not a blessing, and never tell a cancer patient that it is.”

I wanted to hug her, dance with her, talk to her. She was angry about what cancer took from her, about how it made her suffer, about how treatment had left permanent disabilities. And in her words I found validation and comfort.

It is human nature, at least for some humans, to find silver linings. And, I’ve heard people say similar things about COVID, about its “gifts.”

But I want to push back hard against the notion that the tribulation itself brings the gifts, that if we look hard enough we will find silver linings.

To talk like this erases suffering. We erase each other and erase our humanity. Cancer is awful. It’s terrifying, traumatic, painful, soul-destroying. Cancer kills our children and our husbands, our mothers and grandmothers.

For those who live through it, cancer leaves behind trauma and anxiety, depression and sorrow.

Treatments often have lifelong effects: hearing loss, lymphedema, neuropathy. People lose organs and limbs. People lose their voices, their privacy, their sex lives. People lose friends and family members.

Suffering and dying do not in real life mirror their depiction in movies. So much of suffering through cancer is disgusting. Pain isn’t noble. It can be intolerable both to feel and to watch. Drugs that relieve pain often shut down consciousness and bring their own side effects.

I imagine the same is true of those who’ve met COVID face to face.

This morning I took my thyroid pill and choked on it. It was stuck in my throat and I couldn’t breathe. For half a second I thought I’d die. I panicked. But then, of course, it cleared and I could drink water.

I thought then of people with COVID, unable to catch their breath for long periods of time. The terror they must feel. The sounds they must make.

I remember being in a hospital room with my mother when a mucus plug caused her to code. She couldn’t breathe, and while she was conscious the look in her eyes is something I’ll never forget, though I have tried.

These are not gifts, and you’ll not find silver linings in their midst. They are the stuff of nightmares and post traumatic stress.

Yet, I am a long way from my cancer diagnosis and successful treatment. I am starting to gain my footing in the midst of COVID. And, I know that I have grown and learned in spite of the suffering, in spite of the lingering effects.

I walk my dog through my neighborhood, usually a quiet place, not unfriendly but not full of gregarious hand wavers and folks calling out, “Hello, how are you?” either.

I’m seeing folks and dogs I’ve never seen before, and almost without fail people greet each other with warmth. As they cross the street to keep good distance they smile and comment on my dog.

As my dog sniffed a tuft of grass, one woman said, “Do you know what he’s doing?” Pause. “Checking his pee mail.” I roared laughing.

A group of us gathered on the four corners of an intersection a few weeks ago, all looking in the sky at a group of 20 or so migrating vultures. We watched together and talked about how eerie it was to see them.

I watch John Krasinski’s “Some Good News” every week and marvel at the kindness and generosity of human beings.

But these are not gifts of COVID. They aren’t silver linings discovered.

These are intentional acts by human beings. The good we see in the midst of suffering is the good we make.

Cancer and viruses are diseases, aberrations, replicants. They are not gifts and they are not joy.

Humans, though, we’re capable of creating the good, of learning in spite of the bad, of making in the midst of the ignoble some nobility. Some can even, in the midst of horrible pain, offer joy, craft peace.

Clouds don’t have linings. There is not good inside of them. Instead we stitch good inside of them.

When we do these good things, we honor the suffering of others, we acknowledge it, we are humble in its presence. We can fight for others and for ourselves. We can believe.

We can make for ourselves a new normal, where both grief and hope have a place. We can see others, hear them, offer care.

We can give the gift of ourselves.

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It’s extremely strange how one human being, Weird Al Yankovic, is so transcendently gifted for the art of parody songwriting, and the rest of us…well not as much…but in varying degrees. Randy Rainbow and BradyFan83 are actually pretty amazing at this.

All I know is this- the key is to retain the right lyrics when you can, and to strike the right balance between keeping/changing lyrics. I also know that being creative is the key to keeping your sanity during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. It helps you get through the monotonous days, which all bleed together at this point. What’s today? Frednesday Smarch 34th? I realized my 2020 day planner was pointless weeks ago and burned it for heat.

In terms of creativity, did you see the video of that British family doing “One Day More” from “Les Miserables” coronavirus version? It went viral (we need to retire that hackneyed old buzz phrase for good now!). What about the cast of “Hamilton” and their “In the Zoom Where it Happens“?

How about my sister’s coronapocalypse editions of songs from “West Side Story” and “Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?” Those are available upon request, email me. So in this spirit…I give you, “I Believe” from “The Book of Mormon.” (embedded below)

It’s actually already been parodied, in much better form than this, by NCIS Los Angeles’ Barrett Foa and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, about Mitt Romney in 2012 (embedded further below)

Ever since New Year’s
I thought 2020 could be the best…
So what happened?
I thought this could be a wonderful year…
so what happened?

March was supposed to be all so exciting.
Covering my alma mater in the tourney.
But on the 11th, everything got cancelled
Oh, woe is everyone, including me

I’ve always longed to leave the house more.
To do the things I never dared.
This was the time for me to step up.
But now we’re sheltering-in-place and scared

A novel virus with no therapeutic or vaccine.
What’s so scary about that?
I must trust that social distancing can beat it,
And the CDC always has my back.
Now I must be a complete shut-in
I can’t have even one single visitor!

I believe-
That anti-vaxxers are dangerous idiots.
I believe-
The Asian wet markets must be closed.
And I believe-
That Sean Hannity definitely doesn’t speak
for America.
I am a Chicagoan.
And a Chicagoan just believes.

You cannot quarantine part-way.
You have to quarantine all the time.
It’s time to set my social life free
Time to shun the entire world
And share my experience with no one except me!

I believe-
That Mayor Lightfoot has a plan for all of us.
I believe-
That plan involves
Me going absolutely nowhere.
And I believe
That the current President of the United States,
Donald Trump, has no clue WTF he’s talking about.
I am an Illinoisan and, dang it,
An Illinoisan just believes.

CHORUS
An Illinoisan just believes.

ELDER PRICE
I know that I must go and do-
The things Tony Fauci commands.

CHORUS
Things Fauci commands.

ELDER PRICE
I realize now why he sent me home!
If you use hand sanitizer in faith
It will always work for you, just believe
In W.H.O. and have no fear.

GUARD
(spoken) Immune system! We have an intruder! A virus just crossed the cellular membrane!

ELDER PRICE
I believe!!!
That Florida’s Governor is a Covidiot.
I believe!
That Georgia’s governor isn’t much better!
And I believe that in 1918 the Spanish got screwed when a Kansas or Chinese born influenza was named after them!!

CHORUS
It wasn’t actually a Spanish Flu!!

ELDER PRICE
You can be good at social distancing!
A social distancer just believes.

GENERAL
(spoken) How do we fight this?

ELDER PRICE
And now I can feel the isolation.
Doing what J.D. Salinger and Howard Hughes were born to do.
And I feel so incredible-
to be sharing Zoom, Skype and Cisco WebEx with you.
The guidelines say that you must stay six feet away,
If you listen to Dr. Birx herself you’ll know.
But you must listen to her without any doubt,
And let your facial hair grow!

CHORUS
Let your facial hair grow!

ELDER PRICE
I believe!
That J.B. Pritzker knows what he’s doing!
I believe!
That Newsom and Cuomo do as well.
And I believe
That the Garden of Eden is any place that has fresh air

If you believe,
The curve, we’ll flatten it.
And you’ll know it’s all true-
You’ll just see it.

We’ll be back to normal!!!
And by gosh-
Hopefully, that’s sometime this year!!!!
Oh, I believe!
I believe!

CHORUS

Believe!

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No,  I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation. 

You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.

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